Another and a very handsome letter sent to General Lockwood by an
officer of the army, who had long known the son, was as follows:
“San Antonio, Fla., _July 25, 1884_.
“My dear General: The newspapers tardily convey to me the news of
your son’s heroic death. I can not express to you how much both my
wife and myself were affected by this intelligence. I knew your
son from his entry into the Twenty-third Infantry in 1873 until I
was promoted to the Twenty-second in 1879, and formed so high an
estimate of his sterling soldierly character that it is
inexpressibly sad to think of his career being cut short at so
early an age. But, though early, he has nevertheless left his mark
on the scientific record of the country—a record which can never
perish while the frozen North continues to hold the secrets he has
more nearly penetrated than any other explorer of those regions.
This must be, my dear general, some consolation to you, though I
well know that it can not wholly atone for the loss of your noble
son. But, as time passes, this reflection may soften your paternal
grief.
“A life-work need not extend to the allotted threescore years and
ten. In the providence of God it often compasses a much smaller
period of time; when it is accomplished, God calls the worker
home.
“Who shall measure the work your son accomplished in the examples
he gave of fidelity to duty, of heroic fortitude? How many
fainting souls in the future, reading of his devotion, will be
strengthened to go forward in the paths marked out for them! That
your grief may be in time assuaged by these reflections is the
prayer devoutly offered by your sincere friend.”
Many private letters of condolence and sympathy were written to the
parents of the deceased, by personal friends and others, some of
which serve to illustrate the character of the departed. One of
these friends wrote as follows:
“The tender regard and sincere love I had for James prompts me to
write to you and express my heart-felt sorrow in losing him. We were
dear friends for years, and a more upright and honorable man never
lived, and our regiment has lost a member who can never be replaced,
and the memory of him who died far away from us can never be
forgotten.”
In another letter a friend wrote as follows:
“Dr. B——, U. S. A., one of James’s most intimate and best friends,
desires me to say that, of all the men he knew, James was to him far
dearer than any other. As for myself, I shall always hold James dear
to my heart, and hope some day, when all things pass away, to meet
him in that happy land where our loved ones are gone.”
In another letter occurs the following:
“Lockwood was among the best young officers of the regiment. Very
attentive to duty, and correct in habits, his promise of usefulness
was unusually great. I hope that the knowledge of duty well
performed, and under the most trying circumstances, may in some
degree ameliorate your great grief.”
Another friend writes:
“I but echo the feelings of all in the Twenty-third Infantry who
knew your son, in saying that your great loss is partly theirs. His
kindly and generous impulses, his sterling integrity, and his
thoroughness as an officer and a gentleman, secured and retained for
him the substantial good-will and friendship of all. And while we
may grieve at the mournful end of his career, yet this feeling is
somewhat neutralized in the melancholy satisfaction of knowing that
he died on the field of honor.”
In another letter from one who had been in the army and on the staff
of General Lockwood at Accomac, Va., occurs the following most
admirable and appropriate passage: “I do believe, dear general, that
all is well with your son. Standing where no human footstep had ever
trod before, seeing what no eye had ever before beheld, alone amid
the awful silence of that frozen deep—alone with God—there must have
been communings with the Holy One of more import to James than all
else besides. And at the last day you will again see your son in
glory, wearing the crown of those made perfect through suffering.”
Besides the many letters written by personal friends, there were
others from perfect strangers, who had either served under General
Lockwood in the army, or been especially interested in the fate of
the youthful hero.
Among the strangers who wrote letters of condolence was the Rev.
William E. Griffis, D. D., of Schenectady, N. Y., who had preached a
sermon on the conquests of peace, and in which he made the following
allusion to Lieutenant Lockwood: “The laurels that repose on the
memory of Lieutenant Lockwood are better than battle-honors or
wreaths after bloody victories.” It was his opinion that the Arctic
secret would yet be won; and that Lockwood and his brother heroes
were doing the will of God as explorers in the far North.
On the 20th of July, 1884, the Rev. Dr. John S. Lindsay, of St.
John’s Church, in Georgetown, delivered a sermon in which he alluded
to the return of the Greely Expedition, and especially to Lieutenant
Lockwood, who had been one of his parishioners. He said: “Just a few
days ago we were plunged into sorrow by the news that among the
living of the latest Arctic expedition who had been rescued was
_not_ our young townsman, the son of one of the most honored members
of this congregation; the dispatch that brought the glad
intelligence that six were saved was soon followed by the sad
announcement that he, vigorous as he was, had sunk under the rigors
of the climate, worn out by work and want. Has he left no lesson for
you and me, for all his fellow-men? Think of his ceaseless endeavor,
of the courage and devotion with which he bore the brunt of the
exploration, and wore away his own strength in seeking food for his
comrades and himself! See him, with a single companion, penetrating
nearer to the north pole than any other man had ever gone, however
daring! When he had done his whole duty, more than had ever been
done before, he lies down to rest—to die.
[Illustration: THE GREELY EXPEDITION.
MAP SHOWING THE EXPLORATIONS BY
LIEUT. J.B. LOCKWOOD, INFTY. A. S. O.
1882-1883]
“Most fittingly did his brother explorers give his name to this
spot, the farthest land north trod by human foot. Lockwood Island
shall stand, as long as the earth endures, amid the awful wastes and
silence of these mysterious regions, as the monument of this brave
young soldier. A child of the Church, the subject of ceaseless
prayer—of yours, of mine, of his family—we trust that his spirit,
chastened and exalted by the hardships he endured, winged its flight
from the inhospitable land that refused sustenance to his body, and
now rests and waits in the paradise of God. We mingle our tears with
his father’s and his mother’s, and with those of all who loved him;
but out of the deep we rejoice in the record he has left behind of
devotion to duty even unto death. Surely no life is short in which
so much is done, or in vain that gives such instruction and such
inspiration to other lives. In conclusion, let us not cast away our
faith in God, because of the mysteries and trials and sufferings of
life.”